Francis Fong, Samuel Khoo, Dylan Koo and Darren Lim made history last night when they became the first Singapore relay quartet to reach a world swimming final.

They clocked a new national Under-17 record of 3min 47.36sec to finish ninth in the 4x100m individual medley heats of the Fina World Junior Swimming Championships yesterday morning and were put on the reserve list.

They were told of their place in the final yesterday afternoon, when Poland failed to report on time.

Dylan, 16, said: "When we heard the news at the Aquatic Centre, we immediately readied ourselves and we were quite pumped up because we knew that we had a second shot at the Under-17 record."

They were close, but missed out on another new mark with their 3:47.40 swim to finish eighth in the final.

Also, three other national Under-17 relay records were rewritten during the six-day meet - the women's 4x100m medley, the men's 4x200m free and the men's 4x100m free.